Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, raped a choirboy in the 1990s and molested another.
His victims were two boys.
The pair “nicked off” after a Sunday solemn mass in late 1996 and were caught swigging sacramental wine in the priest’s sacristy by Pell, newly installed as Archbishop of Melbourne.
Pell scolded them, exposed his penis from beneath the ornate ceremonial robes, and molested them.
A Melbourne jury in December found Pell guilty of five charges – one of sexually penetrating a child and four of committing indecent acts with children.
That verdict was made public on Tuesday after months of procedural secrecy, and the abandonment of a second trial over allegations Pell indecently assaulted boys in Ballarat in the 1970s.
Pell has maintained his innocence over all allegations and has lodged an appeal of his conviction.
One of the victims, now in his 30s, brought the allegations to police after years of having struggled to understand what he’d experienced.
A month or so after he was raped by Pell he was sexually assaulted again, pushed against a cathedral wall by the now-Cardinal who fondled his genitals.
Pell’s other victim died in 2014 in accidental circumstances.
Top defence barrister Robert Richter QC represented Pell in the trial, and during an earlier trial in which the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict.
Mr Richter failed to convince the latest jury that the cathedral’s processes were so seamless that two boys simply could not have “nicked off” unseen.
He argued the allegations were a “far-fetched fantasy”, that Pell was always accompanied after mass and that the cumbersome robes would have prevented him revealing his genitals.
“Only a madman would attempt to rape boys in the priest’s sacristy immediately after Sunday solemn mass,” he told the jury.
Pell, who was physically ailing during the trial and on crutches before a double knee replacement over Christmas, remains on bail.
He’s due to return to the County Court for a plea hearing on February 27.
Chief Judge Peter Kidd is due to sentence him in March.
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I believe Pell is guilty. I believe the boys are victims. But, I can't get my head around the sequence of events. It would be like saying kids had snuck into the canteen/tuckshop after it has closed but before the end-of-lunch bell and been sprung stealing the left-over meat pies and then coerced into having sex with the principal. It might happen, but the canteen volunteers are right there cleaning up. There are people everywhere outside the canteen who can hear, even if they can't see. Why would anyone take such a risk?
I have read many comments linking Pell to sexual abuse. I don't like Pell. I think he is guilty, but if he has been found guilty without a fair trial then that is a terrible thing. How would you feel if it happened to you or someone you loved?
I have never been in court, but I have been falsely accused and then not had a fair, impartial hearing. It is dreadful. The feeling of helplessness and betrayal by the system. Being disbelieved and punished without being allowed to present a proper defense.
I don't suggest that we should doubt the victims, but the jury must be impartial and must base their decisions on the evidence. I admit, if I was a juror I'd want a tour of the space and a video of what normally happens at the end of mass in that space. I would accept the victim amending their story to say they had snuck back after mass when everyone had gone. Those kinds of details are easily suppressed. It doesn't mean the victim lied in his accusation that he was assaulted.
I am sorry if I have hurt or triggered anyone by my opinion. I reiterate I don't believe the victims are anything less than innocent victims. They have not lied. They are not trying to hurt Pell or the Church.
Bolt has no respect for our Courts of Law, simply because he is mates with convicted pedophile George Pell.
Pedophile Apologist is one way to kill your career I guess.